Here are a couple of happy-fun spending items to make your Monday morning chipper and cheerful. First up, a little line buried at the bottom of a Politico report from the weekend:
Obama’s budget calls for the largest deficit in U.S. history and a doubling of the national debt to $23 trillion in 2019.
That’s assuming, of course, that the government doesn’t grow any faster than promised (but it will) and that the economy will grow as fast as promised (but it won’t). So how long before the debt doubles? Who knows! But we do know that even if we assume a generous 3% growth every year –including this one — out to 2019, the Federal deficit will balloon to about 125% of GDP.
Then there’s this treat:
Government spending on most domestic programs is growing at its fastest pace in nearly 30 years.
Who was President 30 years ago? If memory serves, it was this strange looking fellow.
Which brings us to this week’s Relevant Monty Python Sketch — killer bunny!
Mention of Jimmy Carter and the killer rabbit always brings to my mind the lyrics of a Tom Paxton song (one of the few times that Tom has gone after a Democrat):
President Carter got into his boat,
Wasn’t in a hurry, wanted to float,
Think about the country, think about sin.
Along came a rabbit and he tried to climb in,
And what did Jimmy say?
I don’t want a bunny-wunny in my widdle wow-boat,
In my widdle wow-boat on the pond,
‘Cause the bunny might be cwazy and he’d bite my in the fwoat,
In my widdle wow-boat on the pond.
I was a year and a half out of school, working for a living, when Carter took office. I remember that time all too well – runaway inflation, hostages taken in Iran and kept for more than a year, a President talking about lowered expectations. I don’t want that again, but I fear that I (and every other American) is going to have it.
Doubling the National Debt ?
Increasing spending at a rate that would make LBJ blush ?
To be honest, I think must have found George W Bush’s playbook hidden in a drawer of the Resolute Desk or something, because that’s exactly what we had from 2001-2009.
Change we can believe in, indeed.
Doug –
As Deroy Murdock said at CPAC last month, Obama’s just running home after Bush put him on third.
But if we earmark cuts in all the new spending, raise interest rates, and only elect responsible people, this won’t happen. It’s true, because I read it on a website somewhere. The guy even said it was simple.
Wish I could remember where I read that, since I should send you a link.
*If* we act, that’s damn right.
Meanwhile, you sound a little whiny that your party is doing… pretty much exactly what it promised to do. Might I suggest the first person to start voting responsibly be yourself?
Well I knew you’d realize that, but someone needs to inform Dick Cheney.
I also think that the economic insanity of the Bush years is a good part of the reason why the public still doesn’t take the GOP seriously regardless of what they think of Obama’s policies.
I’m certainly annoyed with the situation, but if I had to vote for the party with the best economics I’d have to emigrate. I vote Democratic mostly to offset the stupid of the Republicans, not because I am addicted to the blue Kool-Aid. I also figure if we are going to bankrupt the country, we should get some bridges to somewhere as part of the deal. Am I whiny? Not because the Democrats have done what they said they would do, but because I had a choice of that or an administration by a dolt and his pretty little Ms. Sunshine.
The country is going to hell, and I’ll defend Obama against the stupid he didn’t do and attack the stupid he does do. And if I sound whiny, it’s because the situation sucks. I’m not optimistic for the future, but I chose the stupid rather than evil party. I could have gone third party, but opted to vote against the evil of two lessers.
Dear Jon:
Hate to piss in your wheaties but truth is you don’t make a lick of sense. Try to things through next time.
The whole world doesn’t make a lick of sense. Partisan politics doesn’t make a lick of sense. Decrying to excesses to come while ignoring the excesses of the present (not even bothering with the past) doesn’t make a lick of sense. What makes sense is to figure out a way out of this mess, and there isn’t a political party that has the balls to do anything reasonable in that direction. The GOP is whining about a 4% increase for the top taxpayers while it pretends to be against all the new spending. The Dems are having to govern and doing a piss-poor job of dealing with reality. How is anyone supposed to make much sense of it? I’m left with anger and despair and a growing sense of dread at the fact that the opposition to the Stupid Party (mine) has evolved from the Evil Party to become the Absurd Party. There’s a reason Monty Python is in this blogpost, and I think it’s to get us closer to the reality of our situation.
jon, Stephen can drunk blog because he is a trained professional. Drunk commenting shouldn’t be undertaken by rank amateurs.
“Decrying to excesses”?